AMAZING GRACE: VERSE TWO
Scott Bayles, pastor
Based on Captured by Grace, by David Jeremiah
First Christian Church, Rosiclare, IL
The story of John Newton is one of the greatest before-and-after stories ever told. As Captain of a slave ship, John Newton dealt in human cargo. He sailed the African cost, traveling from one slave factory to another, loading the shelves of his cargo hold with human beings whom he had bought and intended to sell. He had a sailor’s mouth and a slave trader’s morals. Until, that is, one fateful night when his ship nearly capsized and he came face to face with his own mortality. That moment became the turning point for his life. Once lost, John Newton was now found. He gave his life to Jesus and eventually abandoned the slave trade to become a pastor. Not only did he preach the Gospel for over forty-five years, but he gave Christianity one of its most beloved hymns. John Newton died at the age of eighty-one. His melody, however, lingers on.
Last week we looked between the lines and the notes of John Newton’s famous hymn—Amazing Grace—and discovered that each phrase is jam-packed with the grace of God. The first verse reveals the captivating presence of grace, the compassionate plan of grace, and the changing power of grace. As I said last week, I believe that one of the reasons that this hymn has been so singularly loved and enduring is that every single verse conveys some powerful element of God’s truly amazing grace.
Today, we’re going to pick up right were we left off. We’ll dig into the second verse of Amazing Grace and see, once again, if we can discover just how amazing God’s grace really is. Let’s get started.
The second verse of Amazing Grace expresses two wonderful elements of God’s grace; the first of which is the confusing paradox of grace.
• THE CONFUSING PARADOX OF GRACE
The second verse of Newton’s classic hymn begins with these intriguing words: “’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved...” This stanza is, as I said, somewhat of a confusing paradox. It seems puzzling that Newton would credit God’s grace with both instilling fear in his heart and relieving his heart’s fears in the very same breath. But sometimes that is just what grace does.
The Bible says, “The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death” (Proverbs 14:27 NIV). That’s exactly what happened to John Newton. His life had become a living metaphor: life as a tempest. His days merged into one long voyage through turbulent waters, pounded by storms approaching from any and every point of the compass. He was a man without a country, a vessel wandering with no port.
On March 21, 1748, the young slave trader dozed fitfully in his bunk, uncertain whether it was the sea or his soul that propelled him from one nightmare to the next, when suddenly he was awakened by a fierce storm engulfing the ship. They were taking on water and every sailor on board, including John Newton, was afraid for his life. His sailor instincts kicked in and he rushed for the deck to work the pumps. Just then he felt a rough hand on his shoulder. “Bring me a knife,” yelled the captain, shouting to be heard above the chaos.
Newton left his position to run the errand and, while he was gone, the man who took his place on deck was washed overboard. “That was meant for me,” thought Newton as he returned to his station. He threw all his strength into the task at hand and whispered, almost without thinking, “If this will not do, the Lord have mercy upon us!”
The Lord—it had been years since Newton had uttered God’s name as anything but a curse word. But as he and his shipmates worked through the night, John felt long-suppressed thoughts and emotions spilling over his soul. As morning broke and hope of survival began to take hold among the crew, Newton felt something happening within him. He couldn’t explain it. He couldn’t give logical reasons. He only felt a rising certainty that no mere accident had threatened and spared his ship in the night. For the first time since his childhood, Newton could actually feel a purpose to the fabric of the universe and he began to pray.
Before that night, John Newton had given little if any thought to life-after-death, judgment, or eternity. But, terrified by the prospect of a watery grave, Newton learned the fear of the Lord and he learned it by grace.
Seventeen centuries earlier, another group of sailors were caught in a similar storm. Jesus and his disciple were one the Sea of Galilee, when the Bible says, “a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water” (Mark 4:37 NLT).
The disciples were terrified, afraid that they were all going to drown, but Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat. When they woke him up, he commanded the storm to stop, saying, “Peace! Be still!” (vs. 38 ESV). Suddenly everything was calm. Then he turned toward his disciples and questioned them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (vs. 40 NLT).
These storms—both the one experienced by John Newton and the one experienced by Jesus’ disciples—were a part of God’s plan. These storms were intended to teach a lesson that they didn’t even know they needed to learn: Jesus can be trusted in the storms of life! When the sea was raging and the billows were tossing high, John Newton and Jesus’ disciples looked around and saw danger, they looked within and saw fear, but they fail to look up and see God! The greatest danger was not the wind or the waves—it was the unbelief in their hearts!
God, in his amazing grace, used these storms to get their attention, to draw his followers and John Newton to himself. He does the same with us. Sometimes God brings storms into our lives to help steer us in the right direction and draw us close to him. That’s what he did with me. Several years ago I experienced a bitter divorce. I’d like to say it was all her fault, but it wasn’t. The church I was working with agreed and asked for my resignation. Without a job, I couldn’t pay the mortgage on the house I’d just bought. I ended up moving in with a friend from college in Saint Louis. I felt utterly alone, anxious and afraid. But that’s when grace stepped in. As awful a time as that was in my life, I will forever be grateful for it because, like John Newton, I was forced to come face to face with my own failures and faults and I realized that I too was a wretch. Then I realized just how amazing God’s grace really is.
With the same grace that God teaches our hearts to fear, he also relieves our fears. Eight times in the New Testament, Jesus spoke the words, “Do not be afraid.” God spoke them to Joshua in the Old Testament. He said to Joshua and to each one of you, “This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9 NLT).
Christians never have any reason to be afraid, because we know the Master of the sea; we know the One who commands the wind and the waves. When life’s storms blow our way, we don’t have to be afraid because we are not alone. Whether it’s layoffs at work, slowdowns in the economy, flare-ups in the Middle East, upswings in global warming, or downturns in the housing market—we can be fearless. Jesus is onboard, he’s in the boat, and he’s by your side. In the words of another hymnist, E. A. Hoffman: “What have I to dread, what have I to fear, Leaning on the everlasting arms” of Jesus? If God is holding you in the grip of his grace, then you have nothing to fear. As a child your father always caught you. He still does. “’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved...” That brings us to the second expression of grace found in verse two, which is the connecting point of grace.
• THE CONNECTING POINT OF GRACE
The last line of the second verse to Amazing Grace reads: “How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.” In Newton’s later writings, he recalled that fateful hour. When he was physically exhausted, he was relieved at the pumps, claimed one precious hour of sleep, and then steered the ship until midnight. Alone at the wheel, that’s when Newton began praying. However, he writes, “I could not utter the prayer of faith; I could not draw near to a reconciled God, and call him Father... The comfortless principles of faithlessness were deeply riveted… the great question now was how to obtain faith.”
He didn’t yet know God or Jesus or his Holy Spirit. He didn’t quite have faith. But he wanted it. When his shift at the wheel was over, he hurried to the supply cabin in search of a Bible. Three weeks passed before the boat anchored in Ireland and all the while young John Newton was deep in thought, lost in prayer, and buried in Scripture. During that time Newton embraced the truth of the Gospels and the power of the Savior they spoke of to rescue him from the hell he had fashioned of his own life. There in the pages of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John he found faith. He believed. And, although he still had a long way to go and many hurdles to overcome, he had been touched and forever changed by the precious grace of God.
Faith is the connecting point of grace.
Paul couldn’t have been clearer when he said, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8 ESV). To some of us this seems too simple. We expect a more complicated cure, a more sophisticated salvation. It was hard for John Newton to believe. All his sins blotted out? All that was wretched about him, forgiven? It was hard to accept, but in his old age, as Newton’s memory was beginning to fade, he said, “I remember two things; that I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.”
No other religion can possibly offer what Jesus promises. The Bible says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12 NIV).
Paul underlines the connection between faith and grace when he writes, “God makes people right with himself through their faith in Jesus Christ. This is true for all who believe in Christ, because all people are the same....and all need to be made right with God by his grace, which is a free gift.” (Romans 3:22 NCV).
“By his grace… through their faith.”
And did you notice that little three-letter-word? All. All is powerful word. It leaves no one out. Every single one of us—no matter who you are or what you’ve done—can experience God’s amazing grace. Through Jesus there is forgiveness, mercy, love and grace, but you have to believe. Faith is the vehicle through which we experience God’s limitless grace.
I know, to some people, that sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? Maybe you’re thinking what about baptism, repentance and a changed life? Are you saying those things aren’t necessary? No, of course not. Those things are absolutely necessary. But baptism, repentance, a changed heart and life, and things like that are not in addition to faith. They are expressions of it. They are acts of faith that work together with our faith to make our faith real.
What Jesus wants us to see is that it’s not because of who I am, but because of who he is. It’s not because of what I’ve done, but because of what he has done for me! And all he asks is for us to believe in him—to put our trust in him, and him alone! You see, twenty-centuries of church going as created this culture in which we emphasize performance. Far too many people come to Jesus sincerely, but still full of self-effort. They never realize that the first and most important thing we must do is stop trusting our own efforts and trust completely in what Christ has done for us.
Christianity is all about a God who is seeking a relationship with us, and at the heart of that relationship is trust. Faith is the essence of a relationship. Our fellowship with God is created when we, from our hearts, trust in God’s grace and put our faith in him. That’s how we are justified and reconciled by grace through faith. If God’s amazing grace is the heart of the gospel, then trusting, believing in that grace, is the heart of our response to the gospel. When God’s grace meets human faith, amazing things happen.
Conclusion:
“’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, And grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.” Two wonderful elements of God’s amazing grace—the confusing paradox of grace and the connecting point of grace—beautifully conveyed in harmonious melody.
Invitation:
In a moment, we’ll stand to sing the first two verses of this unforgettable hymn. As we do, I want to challenge you to interpret the circumstances of your life in light of God’s grace. Are you in the midst of one of life’s thunderstorms? Maybe God’s is trying to speak to you through that storm. Maybe he’s trying to get your attention or to steer you in the right direction. Is there fear in your life? If so, God wants to relieve those fears. He wants to put you trust in him to see you through the storm. And if you haven’t ever trusted in him—you haven’t ever made that connection with God’s grace—then do it now. Put your faith in him and discover just how precious his grace appears.
